DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 151 



Forster in Queen Charlotte's Sound, and by Messrs Quoy and Gaimard at Port "Western, 

 in Bass's Straits. 



Lepidoleprus australis (Nob.), Antarctic Imminiset. — Lepidoleprus australis, Rich- 

 ardson, Zool. Proceed., June 25, 1839. 



Tab. VIII. Fig. 1. 



L. actdeis squamarum arete incumbentibus in ordinibus plurimis ; radio dorsali antico 

 submutico ; ano sub finem pinna dorsi prioris posito ; pinnd ani altitudine plus duplici 

 pinnam dorsi posteriorem superante. 



Radii ~Bv. 6 - 6 ; P. 16 ; V. 1|6 ; D. 2|ll - 89 ; C. 1 ; A. 87. 



Icon. nost.Tsb. WW. Explic. — Fig. 1. Profile and 6. section, half size. c. Scale 

 from the cheek, d. Scale from the lateral line, both magnified. Fig. 2. a. Scale from 

 the head. b. One from the lateral line of a Madeira specimen of L. ccelorrhynchus, 

 both magnified. Fig. 3. A scale from the body of a specimen of L. trachyrhynchus, in 

 the Zoological Museum. 



Of the genus Lepidoleprus of Risso, or Macrourus of Bloch, only two species have been 

 fully characterized. The Zoological Museum contains two specimens of ccslorrhynchus, 

 one from the Mediterranean and one from Madeira, not differing perceptibly from each 

 other. Cuvier states in his ' R^gne Animal,' that the same species ranges northwards 

 to the Iceland and Greenland seas, as he has ascertained by an examination of speci- 

 mens. But as the figures of the Macrourus rupestris of Bloch and other authors exhibit 

 the first dorsal ray rough or serrated, and the descriptions state that the spines on the 

 scales are arranged in rows, which is not the case with the specimens in the Zoological 

 Museum, there seems to be still reason for doubting whether the Arctic seas may not 

 nourish two species'. The Rev. R. T. Lowe (Zool. Proceed., May 28, 1839) has cha- 

 racterized the Madeira fish as a distinct species from that of Risso, under the appella- 

 tion of M. atlanticus. 



The second well-known species, L. trachyrhynchus of Risso, and Oxycephas scabrus of 

 Rafinesque, is a Mediterranean fish, but Cuvier does not seem to be quite clear as to its 

 specific differences from a Japanese Lepidoleprus, figured in the Atlas of Krusenstern's 

 Voyage (pi. 60. f. 8. and 9.). Of the Lepidoleprus australis we have received three 

 examples, all from Port Arthur. Two were so much decayed that they were available 

 only for the osteology of the species, but the third was in pretty good order, and from 

 it the drawing by Mr. Curtis was made of half the natural size. Plate VIII. contains 

 also magnified views of the scales of this and of the two Mediterranean species. 



' This conjecture is proved to be correct by two northern species being characterized in a paper by Carl. J. 

 Sundevall, which has just reached this country. " Machoubus fabricii, squamis valdi serrato-carinatis ; 

 radio dorsali antico mbmutico ; pinnd dorsali seciindd ante anum incipiente. Hab. Hammerfest. M. stkomii 

 (Rheinh.), squamis planis, crebre spin«loso-hirlis, radio dorsali antico valde serrato ; pinml dorsi secundd longius 

 pone anum incipiente. Squamec rotunda parum angulatic, absque carinis, parte liberd spinulis setaceis tequalibus, 

 retrorsum adpressis, creberrimi hirtic." Kongl. vetenskaps Academ. handl. for ir 1840 ; Stockh. 1842. A spe- 

 cies named Lepidoleprcs sclehohhynchus (Valenc), having a strongly serrated dorsal spine, is figured in 

 Webb and Bertholet's account of the Canaries recently published. 



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